Android or Apple IOS

[jp10558]

There's no good choice IMHO for smartphones. Android lets you do a lot more and can be cheaper, but you pay in lack of patching, and google spying on everything unless you re-flash the OS and don't run most apps as you can't then use the Play Store (well you can, but now you may have voided the warranty and didn't get away from the spying).

iOS is currently a little more privacy conscious, but I believe as soon as the longer news cycle shifts, Apple is as likely to spy as not - I have no confidence they are actually as a company committed to user privacy or security. iOS is a total walled garden. You can't install software Apple doesn't want you to have.

Honestly, I think if I pay $800 for a mobile phone, I damn well ought to be root, I ought to own it once I pay it off, and I should decide what it does or doesn't do within the confines of the law. Sadly, all the tech companies think they know better than I do.

Same issues on the desktop. I switched to Linux also - I'm a big boy and can make my own choices, thank you very much. I'm hopeful I can get by with the Pyra when it comes out, but it'll be far less plug and play than iOS or Android. I haven't decided if I'm going to use my phone as a glorified hotspot, keep the phone for texting and talking, or find I can't give up the smartphone for a clamshell device that's a "real" computer.

 

[cadman]

I'm not sure I'd say there are no good smartphone choices, I honestly couldn't be happier with my 5S. Picked it up as an 'open box' (though never actually removed) a couple years ago at Best Buy for less than a C-note and it has performed almost flawlessly since day 1. I say "almost flawlessly" because I have run up against its meager memory occasionally (16GB) if shooting video, and about once a year it requires a restart. Other than that, it's taken the beating I've thrown at it (both HW & SW). In fact, I'm still on the original battery which I can get 2-3 days out of under normal use.

People make a big fuss about the 'walled garden' approach to limited apps, but I've never found that to be an issue. I can think of nothing mainstream that's not available on both Apple and Android, and lots of rather eccentric stuff, too.

I'd never pay $600 for a phone, but this one comes damn close to that value.